The Kamikaze Hearts played their last live date on December 21, 2007, at Troy's late, lamented Revolution Hall. The group's apparent demise marked the end of an era, when the Hearts ruled the roost as the region's great indie hope.

But guitarist/vocalist Troy Pohl says the band didn't so much break up as fade away.

"We just decided to cool it a little bit. We never even said we were going to break up."

Friday, the reunited combo headlines the opening night of the third annual Restoration Festival at St. Joseph's Church in downtown Albany.

As Pohl tells it, the band's story is sort of a familiar one, with a group of talented, hardworking musicians reaching for the brass ring and losing grip just as it touched their fingers.

In the case of the Hearts, the band, which had built up a strong grassroots following as well as a solid Northeast touring base, was signed to a subsidiary of the U.K.-based One Little Indian label.

"That was really exciting for us at the time, but it didn't work out very well," Pohl says.

They thought they were signing to the label itself, not a "weird, mismanaged" offshoot.

"At the very last minute they told us we were signed to this thing called Tangled Up!"

The resulting album, "Oneida Road," is something of a classic, but it went largely unheard. Some reviews even focused on the hype rather than the album itself.

"We were promoted very strangely in the U.K. The press releases said we were from the farmlands of Albany, N.Y., and all this other weird stuff. You would read reviews that were reviewing the press release and saying that's not who they are, I know where they're from and this is ridiculous.

"That was part of the reason that we stopped playing. We'd been doing it forever and it was time to move on."

But the label debacle, Pohl says, is well behind the band now. Many members have families and most are still involved with music in one fashion or another. Pohl, for example is a staff engineer at Black Dog Studio in Stillwater and an independent producer with albums by Sean Rowe, Grainbelt, Paddy Kilrain and many others to his credit, while multi-instrumentalist Matthew Loiacono has established a strong solo career under the moniker Matthew Carefully.

The focus of Friday's show is fun, not any kind of stab at the big time.

"No one's looking to be a famous rock star anymore," Pohl says, "and that sort of changes things a little bit."

The group will also use the date as an opportunity to release a live document, which will initially be available only on thumb drive. The 32-track high-fidelity package, entitled "Live 05-07" features performances from a number of shows, including the Revolution Hall swan song, and will also boast extras ranging from mp3s to video footage.

The Hearts are one of over a dozen acts to play Rest Fest, which runs from Friday through Sunday.

Alex Muro, of Sgt. Dunbar and the Hobo Banned, along with his bandmate Louis Apicello, are the ringleaders of the event, but Muro points out that over 60 B3nson Recording Collective volunteers have been working hard to make the expanded festival a success.

Muro is excited about the brace of national headliners, including Sharon Van Etten, Mount Eerie and Willy Mason, as well a wide selection of local acts like The Parlor, Dryer and Barons in the Attic.

Proceeds from the festival go to the Historic Albany Foundation, which Muro says is monitoring projects designed to revitalize the church.

Last year the event was nearly derailed by the arrival of Tropical Storm Irene, but in the end it made things even more special for attendees, who felt like survivors as well as fans.

Muro says the edifice itself might be the real star of the show.

"Just spending time in that building is an attraction in and of itself. There's a 180-foot ceiling towards the front, there's amazing stained glass and all of the architecture is wonderful. Even though it's a little dilapidated at this point, it's almost worth the price of admission just to go in and check it out."